Depending on how many packages are shipped daily, standardizing your shipping containers to no more than two or three sizes can save an enormous amount of time & money in the long run.
I sold hardware for six years, and we got complaints from customers pretty regularly for this same issue. Our warehouses would try to ship everything in one or two sizes of boxes: they got stacked neatly on pallets, got shrinkwrapped, and the UPS driver was there for no more than five minutes loading up the shipment in his trailer. It was my understanding that we got a nice discount for making it so easy for them.
Add to that the fact that you can calculate the amount of cubic space a standard carton occupies, and it makes large shipments and expedited (air) shipments
much easier to manage. For air shipments, weight was critical; for freight shipments (truck & shipboard), space was the most important factor.
In the OP's situation, it probably made sense for SOG to stick with standard carton sizes because of quantity discounts, etc. Wasteful for sure, but a cost savings as well. Of course, it could be that some supply weinie let them run out of the smaller boxes or envelopes. That's probably what it was.
I know all this because it took me two years as a total newb to finally get all the formulas straight to properly calculate the various aspects of shipping. Interesting stuff at times, but I generally hated it.
~Chris
